There is a Call to Action! Say Something, Do Something By March 6, 11:59 PM EST

Calling ALL genealogists! It is time to take action to voice your opinion against a raise in fees and while you are at it tell your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) just two years ago proposed a dramatic rate increase to a variety of services, including the genealogical records services. Those proposals were shelved. BUT GENEALOGY PEOPLE THEY ARE AGAIN PROPOSING HUGE RATE INCREASES SO IT IS TIME TO VOICE YOUR OPPOSITION.

Why should we care? If you decide to search for an immigrant ancestor's naturalization records that are still with USCIS these proposed fee changes will really hit your wallet. Fees for a look to see if USCIS has anything for your ancestors, and even more fees to get a copy of what they have on your ancestor. See the proposed fee change schedule below. To see it on the government regulations page, search for Table 23 or search for Genealogy and Records which starts several paragraphs before the table.

There are also some records at USCIS that technically should have already been transferred to the National Archives, whose copy fees are more reasonable. From the outside it seems USCIS has not transferred these records as they should have so they can be used as a revenue flow.

We agree some fees are warranted very little is for free in this world but price gouging of the records of the People of America is not warranted.

You can submit your formal comment at the Federal Register website. But first prepare yourself ahead of time. See Judy Russell's blog The Legal Genealogist for detailed instructions of how to voice your opinion.

Essentially she says prepare what you want to say/comment on before hand. (You can view the comments of others to see what others are saying.) Make sure to submit a formal comment, click the boxes she mentioned, and forward a copy of your comment to your U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative. And, be sure to mention you are commenting on the fees for the genealogy program.

You can find your U.S. Senators here by selecting your state and your U.S. Representative here by using your zip code.

The deadline for comments is Monday, March 6, 2023, 11:59 PM EST. Please join us in fighting this.

See you someday soon at our favorite library!
LE